THE WEDDING PARTY

From left to right, Tom Rooney, Moya O’Connell, Virginia Griffith, Kristen Thomson, and Jason Cadieux arrange family, love and mistaken identity into a bouquet of beauty and hilarity in The Wedding Party.

TOTALLY KOOKY

Two out of three people will agree that weddings may suck but wedding parties rock big time!

Yes, the awkward dinner chamber of hellos—and sometimes less than genuine smiles from across the room—can take its toll throughout an evening but the unexpected never takes the exact same shape twice.

And let’s face it, when the liquor kicks in–sweeeeeeeet Jesus, it’s only a matter of time before a celebratory mood is at high risk of going downhill quickly.

For an inaugural production in its new Carlaw Street digs, Crow’s Theatre exceed all expectations in an outrageously funny examination of family frustration on the biggest day of a committed couple’s new life.

It should be noted this is casting made in heaven with Kristen Thomson as the bride’s ‘giant big ear’ mother who has a bit more to say than she should with a microphone in her hand. And then there’s Moya O’Connell’s as the mother of the groom who can ‘turn sorry into glory’ at the drop of a hat providing a ‘windbreaker of lies’ doesn’t crush her spirits.

Jason Cadieux’s louder than life grandma has enough roughness around the edges to bring down a hot air balloon with Tom Rooney’s self-interest paternal dominance taking a 180 degree turn when he transforms into his meek spirited identical twin brother.

Challenging the conventions of traditional playmaking, this six-hander has actors making lightning fast costume changes exiting one side of the stage and appearing again from the other side faster than you can identify them as a new character.

This is by no means a been there/done that/seen it all before event. The personality crazed comedy is bona fide Dora Award nomination material that reigns as the most pleasurable sitcom experience that we’ve experienced in a long, long time.

Not every matrimonial affair is memorable. If you’re partial to toasting a totally kooky storyscape, The Wedding Party is one theatrical gift you’ll not soon forget.